I loved Hot Fuss with a passion (I bought it when they were new and unknown on a whim, so very glad I did, and fell in love) so when I heard Sam’s Town was coming, I bought it pretty much immediately.

On first listening I was incredibly disappointed, as it seemed like everything I’d liked from Hot Fuss was gone, the sharpness, the edgness was missing. It took me several months before I found myself wanting to listen to one of the songs. I ended up letting it play in the background while I was painting one day and listened to the whole album through 2 or 3 times. From there I suddenly started hearing it differently and it’s really developed into a favourite. It’s a very different sound to Hot Fuss, there are still some things which don’t quite work- it seems to me that they’re trying to sound kind of… emo in some of the tracks (think Bright Eyes or Dashboard Confessional) but on the whole it’s a more mature album, with a lot more of a studio feel, which is both good and bad.

Personal favourite tracks are probably the title track- “Sam’s Town”, the Interlude and “This river is wild” Some twiddly little lyrical moves coupled with awesome guitar (as ever) makes for some pretty sweet songs. (that whole “I still remember Grandma Dixie’s wake, I’d never really known anybody that died before/ Red White and Blue upon a birthday cake, my brother he was born on the fourth of July” line really sings out to me as pure awesome for some reason- something in Brandon’s voice is just perfect here.)

It’s a grower, but definitely work taking the effort over in my opinion.